niffler

Fresh frimp: 

This starts off as strong narcissus with a touch of opium and myrrh. The narcissus does retreat just a little as it dries and I get deeper opium and velvety myrrh... that is a Whole Mood. I didn't think I'd like this at all, but it's quite seductive. Myrrh tends to do well on me but narcissus has about a 50/50 chance of behaving and I haven't previously tried the lab's opium note. So far so good? The narcissus isn't screeching its head off and the opium is really rich. 

This is a moody scent for sultry vampires and witches. Outside my comfort zone, and I'm glad to have tried it. 

Testing a frimp fresh from the lab: 

Fresh vetiver and bay hit right away, but then it starts to warm up a touch with something cinnamon/resin. I get something faintly smoldering if I really concentrate? But this is much colder than I expected. Huh. 

I get cold cinnamon in the drydown. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I mean, it's nice. Certainly nicer than the red hot candy cinnamon I've gotten from other scents. Don't think I'd order a bottle though.  

This reminds me very strongly of my grandmother's Chanel perfume. No, wait, hear me out. I used to pretty much only see her in the summer, on vacation, at the beach. The combination of white florals and clean seaside notes conjures a memory of bringing a bucket of sandy shells into the kitchen, ecstatic to show her my finds and see their colors come to life again as she washed them clean. And her signature scent is a Chanel (don't ask me which, I cannot figure it out).

Anyway, this is a gorgeous perfume. Delicate, heady, a little salty, a little creamy, wonderfully romantic. Not a daily scent for me, but one I will treasure. 

Mmm, piney. I think there's some moss and soil/rock notes underneath, but this is mostly piney in my bottle. On this skin this crisps up into clear mountain air with so much pine, maybe some eucalyptus... and then it turns sweet but still sinus-clearing (I might've accidentally dabbed my nose in it). Once the initial waft of pine burns off, I get to see more of the forest and less of the trees. Fresh woody notes and delicate moss take over in the drydown. This is going to be a mainstay in my collection. 

This is a super wet, lush green. Even though there's no lemon or lime listed, the wasabi seems to fill the role of a citrus by adding something sharp and a little spicy. Initially the blend leans heavily on green tea and bamboo. This definitely a bright froggy green and I love it. If you're familiar with the Enkindled Spring, this blend will be a familiar feel but a much richer, less effervescent green. 

When this dries on my skin, it gets heckin' DRY. The patchouli and moss definitely amp up the dryness of the wasabi, but they stay in balance and I don't get the patchouli blast that sometimes happens on my skin. My favorite part of this blend has to be the tulsi. It adds lovely depth and richness to the drydown. A+ greens.

I've been puzzling over this frimp for a while. I think ylangylang, musk, and maybe a bit of patchouli or anise? There's something making a combination of sweet-sharp-dusty that I've smelled before somewhere but I can't figure it out for the life of me. I don't think I'll be wearing it. I will, however, probably open up the imp and try to work out what the heck is going on at least once a month. 

Dark soil and oak bark form the body of the scent, while fenugreek and flowers slip in and out of focus in the periphery. This is definitely a rich grey, vegetal scent, balancing between warm and cool when it's wet. I got more of the fenugreek in the bottle; when it dries on me, iris and linden are much more dominant. It's a very brooding shadows and slivers of moonlight kind of mood. Amber usually amps at the end of a drydown for me, but here it stays in a supporting role. Very, very pleased with this one!  

Warm, cozy, nutty, buttery. It's almost like maple syrup when it's wet in the bottle, and then the woods and brown musk come through to make it less foody as it's dry. Still definitely roasted and rich chestnut... this is so well blended I'm struggling to separate out any of the particular woods. If I really concentrate I find the dry sawdust and smooth sandalwood. So comfy and very constant through the drydown. Definitely a feeling I'd associate with little brown birds snuggling into a nest in a hollow tree for a winter's nap.... oh, to be a little brown birb ☺️

My first impression in the bottle is fresh peach and rooibos. On the skin the orris/carnation/peach meld together briefly to glow bright pink in the sunrise... Sweet, a little bit spicy, fresh. Hay and rooibos take over when it dries, but it's still a bit fruity even though it's no longer sugar sweet. The orris and musk round out the picture with a pale softness, and osmanthus does that thing I know from They Shut Me Up in Prose where it sort of ghosts above the body of the scent. Delicate and lovely.

So glad I blind bottled! I love the wheat stack paintings and this is a perfect representation of those colors. 

In the frimp, this was... weird. I had no idea what to make of it. Something "creamy" with a bit of leather and cologne that seemed intriguing at first but on second sniff reminded me strongly of rot. I think my brain misinterpreted the greasepaint as some kind of industrial chemical gone moldy. 

In the end, I figured my nose was simply broke and skin tested it. Dry, this became clean leather and rosin and tobacco smoke. Which is fine in concept; I love Rogue, which is mostly leather and rosin. I just do not like the wet stage of this scent. 

In the bottle and on the skin this is pretty much the same for me. Creamy smooth, luscious vanilla. The sandalwood does most of the heavy lifting to keep this from being too sweet. I get a couple flashes of the other notes, but mostly this is vanilla/sandalwood with a wisp of something pale and floral hovering about six inches above the rest of the scent. I imagine it would layer well with anything sandalwood or pale floral. Works wonderfully as a sleep scent for me.

Whip? Leather and rose seems like a good combo for this character.

Ever been slapped in the face with an overwhelming sense memory? I got that with this scent. It reminds me so strongly of being in Hawaii visiting with family that actual tears appeared in my eyes. It's uncanny. The greens, the coconut, the warmth and hint of sweetness with that twist of orange blossom, just reached straight into my amygdala and said "Hey, remember this?"

Ok, so the scent itself is lovely and tropical. With vanilla and coconut and amber you'd think it would be pretty sweet, but it's really not. Something about the combination of the greens and the orange blossom (the baobab leaf? is that the miracle worker here?) is sour and a bit spicy? It's unexpected in that way of exploring a whole forest of flora and fauna you've never seen before. Incredible. I mean, I'm probably biased. But I love this. 

In the bottle, this is a jolt of pure spring. This is so green, it almost smells citrusy or carbonated. Like Sprite, but leaves and grass, if that makes sense. I get a whole blitz of spring flowers initially and I can pick out tulips and daffodils for sure. The initial throw is surprisingly strong, even though it tones down very quickly. Dry, this still has a nice wash of green under all those flowers. I can smell peony very late in the dry down; I'm not familiar enough with star magnolia to pick it out. What a beautiful, naturalistic floral! 

The notes speak for themselves here. Hay, grasses, and herbs are all present and accounted for. This starts off very sharp, like the dry grasses and weeds that scratch at your ankles if you don't wear jeans and boots when you walk through a wild field. I have no idea which specific wild herbs are in this blend, only that there's about a fifty fifty chance of them having sneaky thistles. Everything sweetens up with hay in the drydown... way more than I expected, actually. This stays pretty close to the skin for me after the initial gust of herbs. 

I adore how fresh and crisp this is. Trees and leaves get a lot of love in the fall, but this celebrates the tall grasses that swish in the wind and the clear blue sky overhead.

In the bottle this is a very light translucent gold, all apple and orange blossom with a hint of cedar underneath and a bloom of saffron at the edge. Fresh, airy, very well blended. It reminds me a bit of Sjofn. I can't pick out anything specifically amber or oud.

Much the same wet on my skin. It starts to warm up with amber and honey, but the oud keeps it from being too sweet or powdery. I must say, I tested this on two different days and the first time had an odd stage in the middle where the honey and oud were fighting and vanilla stepped in to put them in a timeout. The honey and oud might not have become friends exactly, but in the second test they refrained from throwing down. Not sure if this was from letting it settle some more or a shift in my (monthly) skin chemistry. Either way, amber and vanilla definitely  sweeten the dry down and it stays harmoniously golden. The end result is beautifully sophisticated. This isn't going to be an everyday scent for me, but I will savor every time I wear it. 

Let me first preface this by saying I had very high hopes for this scent. Old books are one of my absolute favorite scents--like, spend hours looking through the 70's sci-fi paperbacks in my parents' basement, cracking each one open to read a chapter and smell the paper kind of favorite.  

Polished woods dominate in the bottle and the first few moments on my skin. The bookcase is closed, and we're feeling around the paneling for that bit of decoration to press and open the secret passage. On my skin leather joins the party briefly, but once this is dry it's all about those dusty, crumbling pages. We're inside the bookcase passage and all the really good old books are in here, folks. Soft, sandalwood cobwebby, faintly vanillic pages. This is gorgeous. It's not at all sweet (on me), which may have something to do with the polish on the woods, or perhaps that's the leather. Either way, I love this and I'm so happy I blind bottled it. 

Good news @murqmaid... polished woods are front and center in Bookcase Passage ☺️ Not at all sweet either (on me at least). I'm waiting to write a review until this finishes doing its thing as the books/crumbling pages are coming out slowly.

@biggest_ghost Honestly, I don't think there's a better place to look than BPAL if you want to smell like a conjurer of spirits. Pick a mood or a scent note and go through the lab's directory... Djinn for summoning fire spirits, Nosferatu for chatting with vampires over wine, Light of Men's Lives for the candles filling your wizard's tower, Azathoth or Oblivion for losing your mind whilst staring into the abyss... and that's in addition to all of Lucchesa's suggestions! Dee and Black Tower are beloved staples of my own little collection, so I must second those recommendations. Black Tower in particular veers towards the ghostly in my opinion. TLDR; Don't worry, you'll find something wizardly.

Fall in a bottle. It opens with a whoosh of spice and fir needle, which I found a touch overwhelming but not unpleasant. After the cardamom and nutmeg leap out wielding fir needles, black patchouli joins the party. Wet on my skin, it's pretty much the same as in the bottle. The drydown is where this gets interesting for me. Fresh pumpkin and sweet apple form the base of the scent and let the spices settle down a touch. I keep wanting to call the pumpkin dank... not in a bad way, but in that way freshly carved pumpkin is vegetal and not sweet. Maybe that's the damp woods; all the sweetness belongs to the apple. Towards the end of the drydown I got a nice vanilla note? None of the smoke mentioned by previous reviewers. 

This has all the feelings of real fall and no fake pumpkin spice. Long wear, decent throw.* 

*2020 version, fresh. I have not smelled or skin tested previous versions. 

One of the first scents I tested, but never reviewed. It's warm, green brown and a little fig-sweet in the imp. Beautifully earthy, definitely reminiscent of a living fig tree. The greens disappear immediately when on my skin, leaving warm caramel fig with undertones of wood. Sadly it then goes very powdery on me for a long while. It ends up smelling like a faint powdering of that sweet-spice craft store smell. I hardly ever wear it except to layer occasionally because my skin makes such a mess of it on its own. 

The shades of "earthy" in BPAL are extremely varied and somewhat dependent on your skin chemistry. Are you looking for a green kind of earthy, pure soil earthy, patchouli earthy, or musky earthy? Do herbal or fruit notes appeal to you? 

Death Cap, Destroying Angel, and Grave Pig are all well-loved earth scents in the general catalog without florals. Patchouli and musk scents abound, as do forest/outdoors scents (recommendation threads linked). Some of the Halloween scents currently available might also be up your alley!

Reviving this thread!

Considering that my favorite scents so far have been... not very bridal, I thought I'd importune the BPAL hivemind for help. Currently thinking of ordering/testing: After the Winter, Alice, Brisingamen, and White Rabbit. So, suggestions for an early spring wedding? I'm going to be difficult and say no orris, lily, or jasmine.

Edit: Sjofn and Liquid Gold is in the Air are currently in the running, but neither last a particularly long time on me... not ideal. I have placed orders for several scents that may work and will update when I get to test them. 

Not necessarily a good sleepytime scent, but several times now I've fallen asleep with Black Tower on. Each time I have unusually vivid, unsettling dreams. I haven't noticed any effect with other scents (good or bad), and love Black Tower when I'm awake, so I'm a bit puzzled. Perhaps something to do with the airiness/wateriness previously mentioned re: dreams, what with the ozone and ambergris... or maybe I just reach for Black Tower when I'm in a mood that would produce weird dreams anyway. 🤔 

Aglea (amber, musk, peach) and Brisingamen (amber, carnation) come to mind from the general catalog.... possibly Xanthe the Weeping Clown (guava, orange, white pepper) or Coral Snake (Snake Oil, blood orange, lemon peel, plumeria) from the Carnaval Diabolique?